Monday, April 23, 2012

Joe Girardi has his rotation set through Friday night against the Tigers at Yankee Stadium.

What the Yankees manager doesn’t have — at least publicly — is a starter for Saturday.

Since last night’s game against the Red Sox at Fenway Park was washed out, CC Sabathia starts tonight against the Rangers instead of working last night.

Ivan Nova goes Friday, but Girardi has options for Saturday. He can bring Sabathia back on regular rest or go with the struggling Freddy Garcia. But what Girardi won’t do is insert rookie David Phelps into the rotation.

“After that, we’ll see,’’ Girardi said of Nova.

Because Thursday — Garcia’s normal day — was dark on the schedule, skipping the veteran right-hander was possible. Now, that is a stronger possibility if another starter doesn’t require an extra day of rest.

It also mentions in the article that Girardi asked Garcia if he was healthy and the right-hander said he fine. At this point I see no reason not to skip him. Until the back end of the rotation is settled, there's no reason to throw back to back stinkers if you can avoid it, and in this case they can. Also, maybe the extra time off will help Garcia figure out what's going wrong on the mound.

Joe Girardi has his rotation set through Friday night against the Tigers at Yankee Stadium.

What the Yankees manager doesn’t have — at least publicly — is a starter for Saturday.

Since last night’s game against the Red Sox at Fenway Park was washed out, CC Sabathia starts tonight against the Rangers instead of working last night.

Ivan Nova goes Friday, but Girardi has options for Saturday. He can bring Sabathia back on regular rest or go with the struggling Freddy Garcia. But what Girardi won’t do is insert rookie David Phelps into the rotation.

“After that, we’ll see,’’ Girardi said of Nova.

Because Thursday — Garcia’s normal day — was dark on the schedule, skipping the veteran right-hander was possible. Now, that is a stronger possibility if another starter doesn’t require an extra day of rest.

It also mentions in the article that Girardi asked Garcia if he was healthy and the right-hander said he fine. At this point I see no reason not to skip him. Until the back end of the rotation is settled, there's no reason to throw back to back stinkers if you can avoid it, and in this case they can. Also, maybe the extra time off will help Garcia figure out what's going wrong on the mound.